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$xhtml = array(
	'<{title}>' => 'Truth',
	'<{subtitle}>' => 'Written in <span title="Introduction to Philosophy">PHIL 1402</span> by <a href="https://y.st./">Alexand(er|ra) Yst</a>, finalised on 2018-08-01',
	'<{copyright year}>' => '2018',
	'takedown' => '2017-11-01',
	'<{body}>' => <<<END
<h2>My truth</h2>
<p>
	I suppose if I had to choose one truth in the world that I believe in stronger than anything else, it&apos;s that nothing matters.
	We, as humans, tend to seem meaning in our lives.
	We&apos;re only deceiving ourselves though.
	When you di, you&apos;re gone.
	That&apos;s it.
	Everything you are is simply erased and your matter and energy are dispersed as you decompose.
	Therefore, nothing you do matters.
	Many people I&apos;ve talked to are quick to point out that when you touch the lives of others, you leave something behind though them.
	So?
	In what what way does this change <strong>*anything*</strong>?
	Those people will die too, and when they do, they&apos;ll take with them everything you left them with.
	Everything you&apos;ve used to &quot;live on&quot; them will die to.
	Sure, you&apos;ve made an impact beyond your own life, but that impact will be erased as well.
</p>
<p>
	Life is pointless because it&apos;s finite.
	If you could live forever, your life would actually matter.
	For that matter, if <strong>*anyone*</strong> lived forever, even if it wasn&apos;t you, your life could matter if you impacted their life.
	But life is finite, and thus meaningless.
</p>
<p>
	Even longer-term effects of your life will be erased.
	Take some historical figure you know.
	Let&apos;s use Gandhi, for example.
	Gandhi was known for encouraging change through peaceful methods.
	This has set an example for generations to come.
	The sun&apos;s still a star, and when stars die, they swell up before they do.
	The entire earth will be burned away.
	Even if the sun didn&apos;t swell as it dies out (and it <strong>*will*</strong> swell and engulf the earth, that&apos;s not even a question), it would still die out.
	The entire planet would freeze
	Nothing on this planet is capable of mattering.
	Yes, that&apos;s a long way away.
	I&apos;m talking long-term here.
	It&apos;s believed by scientists that we have more time left before this event than has passed since the theoretical big bang.
	We&apos;ve got some time left.
	Still, we&apos;re but a tiny blip on history and we&apos;ll be extinguished when the time comes, assuming we even last <strong>*that*</strong> long.
</p>
<p>
	If we make it off-world and colonise another planet in time, and there&apos;s certainly lots of time in which to try to hind a habitable place, we&apos;ve only delayed the inevitable.
	We&apos;d have to keep planet-hopping forever to survive, and one day, something&apos;s going to kill us.
	Even if we could planet-hop forever, what about your impact?
	Surely future generations can&apos;t take all the planet&apos;s culture with them when they go.
	Each time will result in huge losses of culture.
	Your impact <strong>*will*</strong> be lost.
	It&apos;s not an if.
	It&apos;s an inevitability.
	You <strong>*cannot*</strong> live on through others forever.
	And because we all have an end, none of us matter.
</p>
<p>
	This belief makes me what you&apos;d call a nihilist.
	Everything is for nothing; there is no purpose or meaning in anything.
</p>
<p>
	This belief is in stark contrast to every philosopher we&apos;ve studied this term.
	They all think things matter.
	Most of them seem to be Christian too, so they believe in a supreme being that lives forever.
	Your impact on that being, even if only in the form of that being remembering your actions, would them have some measure of importance, even if small.
	Furthermore, these Christian philosophers believe that they too, and us as well, will live on forever in spirit form.
	Again, this would give us and our lives a level of importance we don&apos;t otherwise have.
	I don&apos;t believe in absolute good or absolute evil like the philosophers we&apos;ve studied either.
	Good and evil are concepts humans made up to explain their ideas.
	Without humans - or another intelligent species; I have to assume we&apos;re not the only intelligent life in the universe - there can be no good or evil.
	And if we ever come in contact with another intelligent life form, I can just about guarantee that once we break the language barrier, we&apos;ll find they have a very different belief system and morality than we do.
	Morality is completely subjective, and usually influenced by our upbringing.
	A lot of it&apos;s genetic too.
	We&apos;ve evolved to be &quot;good people&quot;.
	Much of what being &quot;good&quot; is revolves around empathy, which is a helpful survival trait for social animals such as humans (Zak, 2011).
</p>
<h2>Living a life</h2>
<p>
	There are certain things I would never do - <strong>*could*</strong> never do - because of my view of the world.
	For example, I would never be cruel enough to have children, just for them to one day have to die.
	I won&apos;t perpetuate the cycle of needless death.
	However, aside from a few things like that, I prefer to live as though life actually <strong>*does*</strong> matter.
	It&apos;s in my nature to seek a purpose with my heart, even if I know in my head that all purpose I find is merely a sham.
	Despite my bleak outlook, I&apos;m actually a very jolly person and I prefer to keep it that way.
	Humans are animals; we&apos;re actually a species of ape (Wikipedia, 2018), related to other apes such as chimpanzees and gorillas.
	It&apos;s why our bodies are so ape-shaped.
	We&apos;ve got ape hands, for example, which let us grab and manipulate objects effectively.
	And what sort of animal has ears that look like ours, besides our fellow apes?
	And as animals, we have instincts.
	We instinctively seek purpose because if we didn&apos;t, we&apos;d die out.
	It&apos;s like how we&apos;re genetically inclined to see faces, even where there are none, such as in tree bark and on the surface of 
	Those that think they&apos;ve found purpose tend to go on living.
	Likewise, those of us that don&apos;t believe in purpose yet don&apos;t mind living anyway live on.
	Those that suffer yet don&apos;t want to live because they have no reason to tend to die out.
	In a more-dangerous older world, they would have likely not defended themselves against predators well, as they had nothing to fight for.
	In today&apos;s society, suicide is more common instead.
	In either case, those genetically inclined to want to live are more likely to pass those instincts on, which is why most of us would fight tooth and nail for survival.
	And I&apos;m no different, aside from the fact that I choose not to pass on my $a[DNA].
	While I&apos;ll try to avoid an early grave, I will be taking my genetic code with me when I go.
</p>
<h2>Manufactured purpose</h2>
<p>
	As I said, I can have no true purpose because true purpose doesn&apos;t exist.
	Yet still, we&apos;re genetically inclined to find purpose, even where there is none.
	It&apos;s like how we&apos;re genetically inclined to see faces, even where there are none, such as in tree bark and on the surface of the moon.
	I mean, do you actually believe the moon has a face?
	I certainly hope not.
	Yet, when you look at the full moon on a clear night, do you not see one there?
	Such is how people find their &quot;purpose&quot; and &quot;meaning&quot; of live.
</p>
<p>
	I try to minimise my harm to the planet.
	Yes, it&apos;s true that the planet doesn&apos;t matter.
	It&apos;ll all be burned away by the sun at some point.
	Yet I still want to perpetuate the planet as much as I can.
	I&apos;ve reduced my carbon footprint as far down as I feasibly can.
	I don&apos;t eat the types of food that cause the largest amount of greenhouse gas release (animal-based products) and I don&apos;t drive a fossil-fuel-burning motor vehicle.
	I don&apos;t even have a driver license; instead, I bike everywhere.
	Preserving the environment is one of my biggest motivations in life.
	I suppose I do it to make the world better for future generations, even though myself, I will have no descendants.
	I also try to promote sharing and reuse of ideas.
	Ideas aren&apos;t property, and when we pretend that they are, we hold each other back and prevent the advancement of the species.
	I even do volunteer work sometimes when I have time to spare.
</p>
<p>
	I suppose this can be tied to the beliefs of Aristotle.
	Aristotle believed that our natural inclinations to form a society are good because they are natural (Zarri, 1948).
	What kind of decent society wouldn&apos;t care about its future generations?
	So too, I care, even though I see caring as pointless, and I still try to do what I believe is best for society as a whole.
	However, unlike Aristotle, I don&apos;t believe that nature, including us, can truly be a good or bad thing.
	It just is what it is.
	I don&apos;t believe that my natural desire to help society is somehow &quot;good&quot;, as opposed to evil.
	I only think it&apos;s good for accomplishing something specific: survival.
	When you have empathy, you help those around you survive and prosper.
	When those around you have empathy, they help you survive and prosper.
	Thus, when everyone has empathy, we all do better than we would without it.
	My ancestors used empathy to survive the harsh world, and even now that life in the area I reside no longer requires daily struggles for survival, I still have that trait.
	Thus, I while I come to a similar conclusion as Aristotle, I come to it in the reverse way.
	Helping others isn&apos;t good because it&apos;s natural.
	Helping others is natural because it&apos;s good.
	Or more specifically, it&apos;s good for the survival of our species.
</p>
<div class="APA_references">
	<h2>References:</h2>
	<p>
		Wikipedia. (2018, July 28). Hominidae - Wikipedia. Retrieved from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominidae"><code>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominidae</code></a>
	</p>
	<p>
		Zak, P. J. (2011, September 8). Why Some People Are Evil. Retrieved from <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-moral-molecule/201109/why-some-people-are-evil"><code>https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-moral-molecule/201109/why-some-people-are-evil</code></a>
	</p>
	<p>
		Zarri, J. (1948, July 16). Aristotle&apos;s Theory of the Origin of the State. Retrieved from <a href="http://scholardarity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Aristotles-Theory-of-the-Origin-of-the-State-DRAFT-2-PDF.pdf"><code>http://scholardarity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Aristotles-Theory-of-the-Origin-of-the-State-DRAFT-2-PDF.pdf</code></a>
	</p>
</div>
END
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